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Nature Verse 




William Hoffman 



REFO 



and Nature Verse 





By 
WILLIAM HOFFMAN 



e^^ 



1905 

Democrat Publishing Company 

JoH^^STO\vN. Pa. 






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AUG 14 190^ I 

AcUj a. /9^4l 




Copyright 1905 

By 

WILIvIAM HOFFMAN 



OoME of the following have already ap- 
^^ peared in the Johnstown Democrat, the 
Chicago Public, the San Francisco Star and 
other publications, to whom acknowledg- 
ment for this re-publication is given. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Liberty hath never owned a truer son 

Than he, our own plain craftsman of the soil, 
Reared in an age inured to earnest toil, 

In whom democracy stands awed, — outdone, 

Supreme he stood till Freedom's fight was won; 
Serene amid the thunder of turmoil, 
He broke the throbbing bands of human spoil; 

'Twas he who held that no man 'neath God's sun 

Is good enough to govern other men. 

Without their own consent, nor yet to stride 
Upon their bending backs for right or wrong; 

For he assumed and e'er maintained again 
That who have liberty to men denied 

'Neath Freedom's God shall not retain it long! 



REFORM 

THE DYING YEAR 

Farewell to thee, thou dying year! 

That safely guards the earth tonight, 
Leaving the world in doubt and fear, 

And reverent in thy hurried flight; 
A few more hours and thou art done, 

Making thy tomb the things of earth; 
A few more hours and thou hast run 

The fulfilled journey of thy birth. 

And tie thou leave the scenes of men, 

To take thy place among the dead, 
Thy greatest deeds recalled again, 

Will glorify thy dying tread; 
By truth renounced of earthly things. 

By noble thought and mighty deed, 
Remembrance that the future brings 

Will rectify thy honored meed. 

Thy tomb s^.all be the hearts of men, 

Where thou wilt never be forgot; 
By thee the world shall live again. 

By thee the future shall be taught — 
As through the mists of ages past 

The progress of the world is traced. 
So shall thy endless record last; 

Thy works shall never be effaced. 

For in thy days there have been done 
Deeds that eternity will praise. 

And in thy works there have been won 
Truths great and mighty victories. 



AND NATURE VEHSE. 

Yet not alone thy deeds adorn 

The pages of historic prime, 
But thoughts immortal have been born 

To guide anew the sons of time! 

Immortal thoughts! immortal deeds! 

Ye claim the minds of men for aye; 
Creeds quickly where oblivion leads 

Will follow with the train away; 
But these shall flourish — name and place 

On the historic page may fade, 
But never can the world erase 

The records that her works have made! 

And these are thine — in future days 

The world will Judge her needs by thee — ■ 
Upon each year the future lays 

The basis of the things to be, 
And that which days succeeding bring 

Of good or evil, right or wrong. 
Still to the hidden past will cling — 

To former years the fruits belong. 

Then may thy written record claim 

The minds of earnest men today; 
May noble deed and honored name 

Like star beams hail the year's decay; 
May crime and falsehood, greed and might, 

Yield ever to the crown of worth. 
And truth and justice, love and right, 

Forever rule the sons of earth! 



REFORM 

SPIRIT OF FREEDOM 

Light of the world, arise! 
Shine forth on foreign skies, 

Power sublime! 
Let every creat^^re yearn, 
Let every vassal learn. 
While thy high precepts burn 

In every clime! 

Spirit of freedom, thou, 
To which the nations bow. 

Submissive by; 
Empires and kingdoms fall, 
Suff'ring and death appal, 
A.nd from the dying thrall 

Rises thy cry. 

Sages and bards have sung, 
Loud have their voices rung. 

In freedom's hall; 
Beauty and truth have paid, 
Justice and right have laid 
Their homage and their aid 

To thy high call. 

Empires, in ages past, 
Have fallen with the blast. 

In meek decay; 
Lands have with splendor shone 
While thou wert theirs alone, 
Yet loud their dying groan. 

When conquests prey! 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Oh, may thy reign be long! 
Thou, spirit of my song, 

In future days; 
May earth and sky reveal 
Thy beauty, strength, and zeal, 
And may each heart's appeal 

Proclaim thy praise! 



^^ $fir^ ^^ 

THE WOBLD ADVANCES 

The world advances; from the western sky 
The sinking sun reveals the lighted way, 

And struggling onward, grim humanity 
Secures the triumphs of another day. 

In serried hosts the waves of progress rise 
High on the shores of want and charity. 

They rush anon, and to despairing eyes 
Reveal the blessings of true equity. 

The waves roll on, and though in rising fall 
To backward boundaries of darker days. 

They still will rise, and to aggression's call 
Lend speed to justice and his higher praise. 

The world advances — from the western sky 
The beams of truth and justice spread around, 

They lighten all, and from earth's misery 
Uplift the wretched to enlightened ground. 



REFORM 



OUR BETRAYED ALLIES 

"Benevolence!" — our wide-winged battle cry, 
When helpless Cuba starving lay, 

We turned our faces from on high 
And drove the Spanish host away. 

From concentrado camps of death. 

From ruined homes and cringing bands, 

We led them forth to breathe the breath 
Of Freedom's hallowed lands. 

'Twas then that far-eyed kinsmen saw. 
In visions fraught with wealth and gain, 

A land where freedom, light and law 
Lay shriveled 'neath the chain. 

And to the stricken race they held 
The hopes that centuries had bred. 

They joined the freemen and rebelled 
With those who fought and bled. 

They fought as brothers side by side, 
And laid the proud oppressors low; 

The brown men thanked the new-found guide, 
Who helped them strike the blow. 

That race had seen in books and dreams 

A rising light from out the west, 
And thence they caught the lucid beams 

From Liberty's enlightened breast. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

The hope of future weal was theirs, 

The call that Independence urged; 
They deemed themselves fair Freedom's heirs. 

In fiery tide the spirit surged. 

Long years of servitude and wrong, 

Beneath an alien despot's sway, 
Gave theme to living speech and song 

And prophesied the coming day. 

And they would rear amid the waste 
Of Asia's crumbling courts and thrones, 

A free state 'mid the empires placed. 
An ark in desolation's zones. 

And they would fight as men have fought 
In Freedom's hallowed cause before. 

From us their inspiration caught, 
From our Republic's sacred lore. 

And the great people of this land 
Gave heart and mind and hand to them, 

To see that fii'st republic stand 
In Asia like a diadem. 

But oh! their trusting vigils kept, 
When Spain's declining power fell. 

As gratefully their spirits wept, 
Knev/ not v/hat treachery befell! 

For they had triumphed — but were bound 

In darker shackles than before. 
They drove the Spaniard from the ground, 

But Greed still held the Nation's door. 



REFORM 

The sword that came in friendship's hour 
To strike their bleeding people free, 

Was made to frown on manhood's power 
And champion hate and slavery. 

A wilderness the conqueror made, 
A lifeless desert, black and bare; 

The wealth fhey sought was seen to fade 
Like dewdrops on the desert air. 

Today in camps the natives die, 

Their homes and fields laid desolate. 

The cries of children rend the skies. 
Their dying heart-pangs cursed in hate. 

Oh! history will tell the tale 

Of their betrayal and will write 

The foul dishonor, black and bale. 
On our own records pure and bright. 

Nor blacker crime, nor darker deed 

Hath Time prescribed to nation's name. 

Than Greed's pretense of right and meed 
That veiled foul conquest's onerous aim. 

Nor darker treason ere hath stained 
The glow of Freedom's spotless page. 

Than Cant's own pious pretense feigned, 
To temper manhood's righteous rage. 

Fight on! O men of Luzon's plains. 
And Samar's bleeding wilderness. 

For with thy downfall Treason reigns; 
Thy triumph. Truth and Rightousness! 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



LEST WE FORGET 

A fleeting vision rose before my eyes, 
A vision of a future built on greed, 
Whose law was lust and ignorance its creed, 
Where rose the clamor of a million cries 
From men enslaved by tyranny and lies. 
Who prated liberty and sang of deeds 
Of rape and conquest of the "lesser breeds," 
While Terror and her minions swept the skies; 
And as it passed and Independence day 

Broke through the portals of the morning gate, 
'Mid shot and shell I heard the people say: 
"Let war and crime rule jubilant for aye, 
Though time and space and nations pass away. 
And Mars and Bacchus let us celebrate." 



REFORM 

TO IRELAND 

Llewellyn's song has vanished from the hills. 
And Wallace's charge is silent on the moor, 

Still conquest's hand, as in the past, instills 
Their deathless spirit in the struggling Boer. 

But thou, O Erin, island of the sea. 

Whom years have viewed in silence and despair. 
Fair land of love, of song, and minstrelsy. 

Why these vain prayers upon the desert air? 

Oh I why thy sorrovv^ and thy haunting fears, 
Thy meek subjection to the conqueror fell? 

Hast thou not learned in blood, in crime, in tears, 
That Britain's glory is the greed of Hell? 

Llewellyn led the fight which Wallace fought; 

They died, nor slaves, nor tools to England's 
power; 
Though crushed, their strokes for liberty had bought 

Firm souls unconquered in the fatal hour. 

And you may choose: shall despotism hold 
Her ban of death o'er your fair isle fore'er? 

Your children's blood be read in England's gold, 
Cursed as the spirits of your fathers were? 

Or shall you strike the stroke that conquest fears. 
In death or life for liberty and right? 

To live, thy works shall grace the future years. 
To die, thy cause shall live enduring bright! 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



DESTINY 

The captain who has sent the teeming ship 

Against the jutted rocks because he couldn't see — 
Extenuation soothes his evil trip. 

But who for this will call the captain wise, 

And praise aloud the dire calamity. 
While each mute charge beneath the ocean lies? 

I hear men prate where ruin rears its head, 

That wrongs and crimes are works of destiny; 
I hear them say it of the quick and dead. 

But shall the author of this bold decree, 
Claim a reward for destined knavery, 
Or ignorance, if that the case may be? 

If Destiny hath wrought the good or ill. 

That wrecked the ships upon a peaceful sea. 
Why let your praise a weary welkin fill, 
And laud the captain for the "Higher Will?" 

Fair Destiny stands guiltless of the spell. 

That guides our state by Scylla's howling sea; 

If we are headed for the depths of Hell, 
Give Cant the palm; the praise. Hypocrisy! 



REFORM 

DECORATION DAY ADDRESS 

(To the Union Soldiers — 1803.) 

Earth has a resting place for you, 

Whose hoary heads bow low today; 
Who, pausing 'neath these skies of blue, 

Shed tears above your comrades' clay; 
Ye are the last of that brave race 

Of free Americans, and soon 
Will sink enfeebled from the place. 

Like shadows from the tarnished noon. 

Where ye have camped in mid-day sun, 

To grasp a moment of repose; 
Where ye have fought, and, fighting, won; 

To crush the strength of mighty foes. 
Where ye have bled that we might own 

A new republic's highest boast; 
There tyrants rear their palaced home, 

And cowards swell another host. 

For when ye fought that men might be 

Freed from the hand of reeking lust, 
Ye hearkened not to despots' plea, 

But straight fulfilled the noble trust; 
Then scorned ye not in vaunting pride 

The Declaration and the law. 
But faced the desert and the tide; 

Illumined what your fathers saw. 

Ye men are not among the host 
Of those who prate in gilded halls. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Who measure mankind at the cost 
Of trade and proud commercial walls; 

Ye were not slaves to greed and power, 
When, marching to the dread array, 

Ye struck for freemen of the hour, 
And drove the southern lords away. 

Ye fought for freedom in your day, 

To free from bondage thousands chained; 
Ye taught the slaver to repay 

For crimes that infamy had stained; 
The blood that flowed from victims bound. 

And mocked our boasts of liberty, 
Urged on the North at bugle's sound 

To crush the vain hypocrisy. 

Why did ye bleed for freedom then. 

Or face the southern prisons' dearth? 
Why suffered for oppressed men — 

The lowly and the weak of earth? 
The Black, the Brown, alike, ye made 

Free in the rights of mutual weal; 
In dark'ning skies the vow was paid. 

Enclasped with thunder-driven seal. 

Ye freed the land from rankling chains, 

And challenged oligarchial creeds. 
Nor thought upon your bleeding veins, 

As lost to future noble deeds; 
Ye knew not then that younger blood 

In generations yet to be 
Would stem the tide of freedom's flood. 

And crush the men who would be free! 



REFORM 

For now the land where once ye trod, 

The wards of Freedom and her train, 
Has been betrayed by boasting laud, 

And sold for selfish greed of gain; 
The land is decked with fresh-turned graves 

Of sons of conquest side by side, 
While sons of liberty are slaves 

To new-born destiny and pride! 



^ 



WASHINGTON 

Thy works shall spread like thunder-driven fire 

Into the heart of ages, Washington! 

From lucid heights of the red-glaring sun 
To the dark dungeons of tyrannic ire. 
Where freemen perish in the poisoned mire, 

Thy works shall live triumphant as begun. 

Though challenged and refuted! — Deeds undone 
Shall nerve the champions of a deathless sire. 
Freedom, unconquered and unknown to die, 

Shall make thy vantage-ground the pride of earth. 
The sacred watchword of the far-off seas; 
There in the night the forewarned battle-cry 

Of freeborn men shall claim their native birth. 
Their homes, their countries, and their liberties 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



LINES 

ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH RECRUITING OFFICES 
AT CHALMETTE, LOUISIANA, DURING THE BOER WAR, IN 
VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OF NEUTRALITY; AND OF WILL- 
IAM MCKINLEY'S DISREGARD OF THE PETITION OF THE 
GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA, ASKING THAT THE OUTRAGES BE 
STOPPED. 

Louisiana! — on thy soil 

I see the British vampires prey; 
I see them seek for living spoil, 
I see them send thy sons away, 

To fight the battles they would shun, 
To share the odium they have won. 

In England they have sought and found 

The dupes and churls who loyal be, 
And o'er the southern battle-ground 
They march a host of tyranny; 
And now, Louisiana, they 
Look to thy sons to lead the way! 

With impious haste the Britain sought. 

Through plots of southern gold conceived, 
To urge a priest already bought 
To sell the land he had deceived. 
As Hessians had been bought and sold 
By Britains in the days of old. 

For well indeed the yoke is borne, 
That binds our pious chieftain's head. 

And well the chains of silence worn. 
That keep the nation's spirit dead; 



REFORM 

A sad essoin were Britain's plan 
Were we but captained by a man! 

Louisiana! canst thou hope, 

Thy governor's petition given, 
With rogues at Washington to cope? 
To see the Britain homeward driven? 

Can men whose hands are bathed in blood 
Cleanse Freedom's shrine of conquest's flood? 

The ships that went to Afric's shore, 

With wheat and mules and horses loaded, 
That our quiescence silent bore. 

To British arms of conquest goaded; 
These, ere they sought to barter men, 
Belie you hope of voice or pen. 

Where are thy sons that once defied 

The tyrant in war's crimson scenes? 
Who left their homes to fight or die 
With Jackson's men at New Orleans? 

Oh! may they drive, at Right's command, 
The British vampire from thy land. 

And may the Boer who battles know 
He fights not Freedom's fight alone, 
Betrayal shall not quench the glow. 
That bright for centuries hath shone; 

Not all our tongues have joined the flood. 
Choked full by Filipino blood! 

The heart of this great nation swells 
Responsive to the burgher's stroke, 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

From stained Chalmette's scene rebels, 

Nor stoops beneath great Edward's yoke, 
Though Cant and all her pious train, 
The god-heads of the nation, reign. 

Louisiana! let thy fire 

Burst forth, unquenchable, today; 
Let thine ov/n sacred manhood's ire 
Drive tyrants from thy door away, 

Nor brook aught more assurance fair 
From Washington's lust-bartered chair! 



^ 



BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION 

For gold and diamonds England crushed the Boer, 
Bold and defiant in her nameless crime, 

With record plain in dark, unholy war. 

Proud, undenying, though besmirched in grime. 

But here! — concealed in platitudes of grace. 
Distrustful of Crime's black, unsightly hand. 

Benevolence and Fate betray the race. 

Shaming our past, and damning our fair land. 



REFORM 

STANZAS ON SLAVERY 

The plains of Columbia are strewn with the fetters, 

That once were enclasped around Africa's hands; 

The slave has been freed and the sword brightly 

glitters 

From the stroke that it made as it severed his 

bands. 

Yes, the slave has been freed from his bondage 

forever, 

And his shackles lie strewn on the breast of the 

main ; 

He is tree and the foes of the freeman shall never 

Hear the groans of the whip-driven chattel again. 

But great was the strife that dissevered the nation, 
Ere the bondsman the banner of liberty bore, 

For great were the forces that shook the foundation 
And shattered the bosom of earth to its core. 

Oh! wild were the cries of the thousands that per- 
ished 
In the din of the conflict, the tumult of war. 
And louder the wails of the friends that they cher- 
ished, 
V/hen the conflict had reddened the earth with 
their gore. 

And deep were the groans of the wounded and dying, 
Who tossed in the marshes of torment and pain, 

In the anguish of death their companions defying. 
Till the bands of the West were united again. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

And great vv-as the wrath and the wild immolation, 
That swept o'er that plain of destruction and woe, 

When the might of the just sought its sole expiation 
In the blood-nurtured plains and the rivers below. 

For long were the years that the country had slum- 
bered 
In the bondage of falsehood, the terror of guilt, 
Till the saber and sword of the hero outnumbered 
The v\^hip and the scourge in the blood that they 
spilt. 

And the crimes of the West were avenged and re- 
quited 
In the blood and the tears of the wounded and 
slain; 
The great and the good with the tyrant united 
To cancel the debt they had fostered in vain. 

Oh! today shall the world, in defiance remanding 
The crimes of the past, reap the wrath they have 
sown; 

Or the precepts of Truth and of Nature, commanding 
The sons of the earth, let the future atone? 



REFORM 

CHRISTMAS-1902 

It is Christmas. Men and nations 

Kneel to consecrate the day; 
Thousands bow in humble worship, 

Rev'rent vows and homage pay; 
Bells ring out the proclamation, 

To each country, tribe and clan, 
"Love and joy to every nation, 

Peace on earth; good will to man." 

From cathedral halls of splendor 

March the youth to battle drilled, 
Reared to fame, extolled to glory, 

In the paths the ancients filled; 
Bred in arts of foul destruction. 

Tutored in each murd'rous plan, 
Trained to pillage, kill and conquer, 

In the name of God and man. 

"Peace on earth," the Christian message^, 

Sped across the land and sea,. 
"We are aught a Christian nation. 

Bred in love and charity; 
To the distant heathen peoples, 

Struggling 'neath oppression's ban. 
We will proffer light and blessing, 

Peace on earth; good will to man." 

With the holy songs and music. 
Of the early Christmas morn, 

Rise the sounds of distant armies. 
Navies o'er the ocean borne; 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Men arrayed in arms of slaughter 
Murder children over ten; 

Armies trained to Christian duty 
Massacre their fellow men. 

In the islands of the ocean 

God abjures the heathen loss; 
We are teaching them the story 

Of the manger and the cross; 
Rum and bibles, swords and cannon, 

Have revealed the sacred plan; 
They are learning of the message, 

"Peace on earth; good will to man." 



e^ 



KEUGEE EXILED 

Broken with grief; his aged hand laid lov/; 
Torn from his people to despair and die, 
While aliens crush his fair Republic's home — 
This tyranny hath done — 
O righteous God! if Druid blood of old 
Revealed the fate of over-satiated Rome, 
How then hath this one act of England's greed 
Cursed the foul soul of her dark fame fore'er! 



^ 



REFORM 



PENNSYLVANIA 

Green are thy hills beneath spring's fervid sky, 

And broad thy mountains stretching o'er the main; 

Fair are the vales that dot thy summer plain. 
And fresh the streams that gush in torrents by. 
And still undimmed when spring and summer die 

Thy skies reflect brown autumn's sober reign 

And speed new beauties on our sight again, 
Where mild delight and contemplation lie; 
Till hoary winter spreads his funeral pall 

And wraps the earth in silent fold and white. 
And ice-bound stream and frozen gorge and fall, 

A murmuring chorus, bless the winter's night. 
And seasons, mountains, wildernesses — ^all 

Broad Pennsylvania's heritage recite. 

Thou proud old Keystone of the early day, 

Heart of the eastern nation bold and free, 

Which once stood first in Light from sea to sea; 
Creation hath a wide and vast array 
Of endless treasure placed beneath thy sway; 

Arcadian regions well may bend the knee, 

And in thy native glory envy thee, 
Where peace and plenty mark thy wide survey; 
Yet these, the glories of thy proud domain, 

Lie hid from thine own children, disinherited 
By man-made laws that weld the captive chain 

For those who toil and delve and are not fed, 
While Nature's fruits an hundredfold remain, 

A sacred promise of our daily bread. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

For Nature's God hath made a fruitful spot 
Of all thy regions and her every smile 
Falls full on stream and river, lake and isle, 

From trackless breadth of forest land stand wrought 

Her wealth of art and dwellings — men are taught 
To sweep the gilded grain for mile on mile, 
To delve the bowels of earth for Nature's pile 

That her best gifts by labor may be bought. 

These gifts of God to man are duly given 
And Nature's trust to us her hand fulfills, 

Though there are those to want and sorrow driven. 
Despite the wealth of teeming mines and mills. 

Who toil, yet reap not that for which they've striven, 
The wealth that crowns our Pennsylvania hills. 

Proud Pennsylvania! land of light and worth. 
Rich field of Heaven's own unfathomed mine — 
Haste thou the day when all thy sons combine 

In manhood's claim — the broad and smiling earth, 

The bounteous plains and forests — all that birth 
And wealth and avarice today define 
As sacred stewardships by right divine; 

And beauty bless the east, the west, the north, 

O'er all the sweeping compass of the plain; 

Then men shall hail the season's changing sun, 

The blast of winter and the summer's rain. 
As Nature's varied aspects, all in one 

Full promise of her bounties, nor in vain. 
Announce thy noblest glory but begun. 



^ 



REFORM 



THE SNOW STORM 

I like to see the first gray light of early morning 
break 
Upon the snow-clad hills and silent sleeping plain. 
When earth's quick stirring creatures first begin to 
wake, 
To view the new-laid snow on all the whitened 
main. 

1 like to see the light of dawn arise on hall and 
spire, 
Crowned with the gleaming beauty of the morn- 
ing snow; 
I like to see the laden mass on bush and vine and 
briar, 
On marble wall or bending bough, fraught with its 
crystal glow. 

But most of all the lowly hut, the cabin black and 
crude, 
Where poverty's meek outcast dwells beside the 
rich man's door, 
I like to see enshrined in light at Nature's kindly 
mood, 
More beautiful than palaced hall or riches' bound- 
less store. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

How graciously hath Nature clothed each spot of 
humblest worth! 
How hid from view each blot and scar of squalor's 
wretched home! 
The silent robe that hides the sign of manhood's 
lower birth 
Hath left a deeper lesson than cathedral shrine 
or dome! 



TRUTH'S LAST APPEAL 

O! truth will waken hearts of flint and steel. 
Such hearts are but unmindful and not dead. 

Men's souls will yield to Truth's sublime appeal, 
Nor be unmoved till Honor's self is fled. 

E'en those who seek to fathom the ideal 
In spheres exclusive at fair Culture's door. 

And those who bend in blinding toil and real, 
Know Truth's cold self holds virtue's priceless 
store. 

Not glazed and glittering ornaments of art. 

Built o'er the mass of Falsehood's thickened flood, 

But the full grasp of Wrong's unseemly part 

Shall make us part of manhood's gushing blood. 



REFORM 



HANNIBAL 

"Eterral enmity to Rome!" thus svvore 

The son of Hamilcar upon the altar stone, 

Ere he forsook the Carthaginian shore 

To face impending war, 

To spurn the conqueror and defend his own, 

To face the might of bold, imperial Rome, 

For freedom and for home; 

Eternal enmity alike for aye 

May strong men swear and hold 

For tyranny and arrogance and greed, 

For vaunting power, irresponsive sway. 

For dreams of world dominion, fraught of old 

With fell destruction, murder-reeking deed; 

For tyranny abroad and dearth at home. 

That jield the sceptered despot and the slave. 

The blood-stained dungeon and the gilded dome, 

The lord's proud equipage, the pauper's grave. 

Eternal enmity from sky to sky 

Renew, O men, toward oppression's ban — 

Defiance bid to all that may deny 

The sacred vantage of the rights of man. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



TO HERBERT S. BIGELOW 

I like to see thee tread where others pause, 

A pioneer where pioneers are few. 
Fearless and dauntless in a holy cause, 

A man of purpose, cowerless and true. 

Too long the pulpit and too long the cross 
Have sought to foil and crucify the world; 

Beneath hate's ban and superstition's dross, 
Their tongued anathemas and curses hurled. 

Thou art a man; a free born son of truth. 
And loyal to the cause of human weal; 

Thy faith holds not a world of crime and ruth, 
Which only night can end and death repeal. 

But with the fervor of the earnest soul. 

By force of truth and by conviction's creed. 

Thou speakst the words that never ceasing roll. 
To yield the harvest of the righteous seed. 

Keep up the faith! with never faltering tread. 
Plant thy firm feet on freedom's rock secure; 

There thy full soul, fixed on the stars ahead, 
In noble luster, endless, shall endure. 



REFORM 



INEQUALITY 

Can you hear, O men and women, of this great en- 
lightened land, 

Voices of the hosts that perish 'neath oppression's 
iron hand, 

All for want of stolen treasures that the greed of 
man hath planned? 

Can you see yon lordly mansion reared against the 
azure sky. 

And below yon haughty lordling in his gilded coach 
ride by, 

With the banquet spent of millions in his self-indul- 
gent eye? 

And beneath that rich man's mansion can you see the 
reeking slum 

With its host of human beings, blinded, atrophied 
and dumb. 

In the maddened strife and struggle for the wealth- 
rejected crumb? 

And beside the spacious pathway where the gilded 

coach appears 
Can you see the toiling masses of a hundred thous- 

a:ui years. 
Begging for the right to labor with their voices and 
their tears? 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Can you see the struggling millions in their slavery 

decreed 
Thus to toil and labor ever for the tyrant master's 

meed, 
All subservient and responsive to the trumpet-call 

of greed? 

Can you see them toiling ever from the morning sun 
till night, 

Taking from the earth her bounties — ^yielding shel- 
ter, food, and light. 

Yet themselves condemned to hunger and to naked- 
ness and night? 

Can you hear the little children who are crying out 

for bread. 
While the father bravely labors that his little ones 

be fed. 
And the mother feels the anguish born of misery 

and dread? 

Can you hear them, O you people of this great en- 
lightened land? 

Can you hear your fellows crying 'neath oppression's 
iron hand? 

Can you hear them cry and perish from the greed 
that man h-ath planned? 



REFORM 



PATRIOTISM 

"My country is the world; 

My countrymen, mankind," 

— Thus spake the elder Garrison, 

In broad defiance of the law, 

Which sanctioned human slavery 

In this, his native land: 

"A covenant with death — a law with hell," 

He named the Constitution, and he saw 

In other lands some good. 

Which he might make his own — 

For this they called him traitor. 

Today the ghosts of whited sepulchers 

Arise, as then, with every stirring wind. 

Amid the chorus of Te Deums sung. 

To shout the dreaded "treason;" 

And they who see in other lands than ours 

Some signs of human good. 

Which we have missed or overtly concealed. 

Are deemed the nation's foes, — 

Content and self-complacent 'mid the scene, 

Sit vested Greed and irresponsive Power, 

Who fain would view the coming millions fall 

To deeper slavery and hate, 

Nor with the dread awakening that time 

Will force upon them when their children learn 

That they have lost their ancient liberties. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

No pretext has there been beneath the sun, 
That Mammon has not championed as his own, 
No thought or deed that he has not espoused. 
In outward form, to catechise the world; 
And none has lent him more unstinted aid 
Than Plunder's own accepted patriotism. 

Awake, O sleeping millions of our land. 
Break down these transient barriers of hate. 
Which keep you slaves to tyranny and crime! 
May your full hearts encompass all the world, 
To praise the good alike in every clime 
And wage unceasing war against the wrong! 
True patriotism finds its first enduring law 
In Truth's eternal vigilance and Right. 



^ 



REFORM 



LINES 

ON NICHOLAS M's MOTION TO ISSUE UKASES FREEING 
POLITICAL PRISONERS AND INSTITUTING SEVERAL 
OTHER IMPORTANT REFORMS, IN CELEBRATION OF THE 
BIRTH OF A SON. 

'Twas Alexander II freed the serf, 
Whom ages had oppressed in grinding toil; 

Blind children of the forest and the turf, 
Who sowed the seed that bloomed the nation's 
spoil. 

Perhaps a spark within the monarch's breast 
Had glowed responsive to the common good, 

Perhaps some thought of former ill redressed, 
Impelled the king to flee the coming flood. 

But Progress finds a new escort today. 
In her fair court of justice over man; 

A swaddling babe opes up the lighted way. 
While thousands pause at Progress and her plan! 

Deluded dupes! how long in rankling chains 

Shall whims and whiles of kings pronounce you 
slaves, 
How long shall church and state, their courts and 
fanes, 
Condemn your souls to servile, living graves? 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



THROW OFF YOUR CHAINS! 

Ye children of the depths, who groan, 
And fate in abject toil bemoan, 
One spirit let your hearts enthrone; 
Throw off your chains! 

I see your fathers, one by one. 
In ancient Egypt driven on, 
Where pyramids resound the tone: 
Throw off your chains! 

As early as the eye may scan 
The dim recorder? deeds of man, 
One cry escapes oppression's ban; 
Throw off your chains! 

In Babylon the cry arose, 
Beneath the rash task-master's blows. 
Unconscious, blind — but still it flows, 
Throw off your chains! 

The palaces, the wealth, the gold, 
The splendors that the earth enfold. 
An ever living mandate rolled. 
Throw off your chains! 

The glories of the Grecian state. 
The triumphs that we anotate, 
Thine efforts and their fruits relate; 
Throw off your chains! 



REFORM 

Rome's power and her might were given, 
From blood and labor torn and riven, 
From struggling nations slain and driven; 
Throw off your chains! 

Through slow succeeding centuries, 
Rolled ages dark in Death's disease. 
Till light attained their obsequies; 
Throw off your chains! 

When later years of tinseled grace 
Consumed that past of record base. 
Greed still maintained its wonted place; 
Throw off your chains! 

Today I see you fill the throng, 
I^ike dupes and slaves to vested wrong. 
Yet you are more than millions strong; 
Throw off your chains! 

Deceived by forms and rites and creeds. 
That tell of Freedom's former deeds. 
Ye follow where oppression leads; 
Throw off your chains! 

And as in ages past, ye sow, 
Ye delve, and build, but may not mow — 
To wealth the product reaped must go; 
Throw off your chains! 

Arise! ye children of the mire. 
Hurl forth your creed with words of fire 
And Freedom claim in holy ire; 
Throw off your chains! 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Ye children of the depths, who groan, 
And fate in abject toil bemoan, 
One spirit let your hearts enthrone; 
Throw off your chains! 



THE GERMAN CLOUD 

Long blazed Hate's scorching sun on your hot plains, 
O thirsting Germans! In the dry hot sand 
Your sires and sons have perished where you 
stand; — 

Beneath that sky where mocking brilliance wanes 

Deluded centuries of red hot chains, 
Dipped deep in false pretense at king's command. 
Have held you slaves beneath the despot hand, 

That binds you in the dust of burning plains; 

Today a cloud hath crossed that blazing sky, 
Perturbing warning of the coming storm; 

Its flood shall route and purge the vested lie, 
And drench the land in freedom and reform, 

A sacred revolution from on high. 

And liberty in truth as well as form. 



REFORM 



DREAMS 

"These are but dreams," the rascals cry. 

In lobby room or gild cafe; 
And as they speak the accents fly 

To heeding ears, and others say, 
In hall and university: 
"Utopian fools are wont to be." 

And Plunder draws a fuller breath, 
And then endows a chancellorship. 

The public silent sits as Death, 
Uncertain bound in hand and lip; 

Indeed, white-palmed philanthrophy 

Hath solved the puzzling mystery. 

Ah! these are dreams — these idle things 
That route the thieves and trixters so, 

These vain Utopian whisperings, 

That threaten all the earth with woe: 

— But give a few such dreams to me 

And you may keep philanthrophy! 



e^ 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



HASDRUBAL OF CARTHAGE * 

Hadst thou but died as thou didst live, 
Defender of thy countrymen in chains, 

With that last gift that mortal man can give, — 
Then were the glory thine that never wanes. 

For who e'er led in nobler cause than thine, 

When Carthage trembled 'neath the foot of Rome? 

When Death's cold hand portrayed the heathen sign. 
In fell destruction of thy nation's home? 

Fair Carthage! brightest city of thine age. 
Far nobler, grander than thy conquering foe, 

Crushed ere the light of thine illustrious page 
Caught the faint ripples of the world below. 

When those dark clouds in sweeping curses fell 
On thy fair sea-kissed city and the sun, 

'Neath Roman gloom escaped thy citadel. 
And heathen pride pronounced thy glory done. 

Then wert thou closen, Hasdrubal, to lead 
The sons of Carthage in their last firm stand, 

The thriving flower to meet the rising weed, 
Nor brook submission to the tyrant hand. 



*The third of that name; he refused to submit to 
the humiliating- terms of peace imposed by Rome and 
commanded the Carthaginians at the famous siege of 
Carthage. Here he surrendered the citadel and beg- 
ged for his life, while his wife and children, with a 
host of unconquerable heroes, perished in the flames. 



REFORM ; 

And thou wert doomed to see thy country fall, 
Her glowing breath arouse the greed of Rome, 

To see her works, the pride of ages — all 
Sink to the cold perdition of the tomb. 

Fair Carthage's vineyards and her silvery walks. 
Her halls, her marts, her galleries, her shrines, 

Her smiling plains, her hillsides and her flocks — 
These saw thou vanquished in greed's foul de- 
signs. 

And worse than wealth of art or lands despoiled. 
Of hall or dome that alien hands destroyed. 

The streets of vanquished Carthage, soaked and 
soiled, 
Betrayed the sword that Roman lust employed. 

For Conquest spares nor works of man nor God, 
Nor stoops where ruin sits o'er shrine or fane, 

While age on age hath seen earth's peaceful sod. 
Steeped red with gore from Nature's children 
slain. 

And Carthage felt the blow in terror given, 
In Hell's alliance and by cruel Rome, 

Her children fall by sword and fire driven. 

Wives, babes and fathers in their stricken home. 

And here, O Hasdrubal, thou stoodst at bay, 
The last lone guardian of the fatal hour, 

When all the force of glory's former day 

Swept forth to meet the spoilsman's rising power. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

And Carthage's sons stood firm upon her walls; 
They challenged death nor bowed beneath the 
flood; 
Her daughters' tresses formed their arsenals, 
Where, bow in hand, they gave their country's 
blood. 

Oh Hasdrubal! 'twas thou that lent defiance 
To Rome's imperial edict 'gainst thy land, 

Who broke the bonds of tyrants' sole reliance 
With Carthage's death ere slavery's commands. 

And thou, — thy helpless country's pride and honor, 

Amid the terror of her dying day. 
Why stooped thou then for treason's foulest donor, 

The life unworthy of its pristine clay? 

Oh! hadst thou stood 'mid fire and sword and 
slaughter, 
Thy last lone blow aimed at thy conqueror's 
breast. 
Or in those flames sank as thy wife and daughter 
Then History's pen and Time had called thee blest! 



^ 



REFORM 



SUNSET 

Behind the hills of ripened grain, 

Fast sinks the summer sun; 
A last lone reaper leaves the plain, 

His day of labor done. 

The reaper sees the sun's dim rays 

Slant over fields and lanes, 
And on his solitary gaze 

A breathless stillness reigns. 

The great round disk o'er yonder mound 

Hath sought the inky wall, 
His golden radiancy spreads round 

And lights the distant knoll. 

The splendors of the western deep 

The reaper's steps allay. 
He sees the sun's majestic sweep 

Close down the book of day. 

And now the sun hath found the marge 

And vanished 'neath the hill. 
Like Phlegyas' solitary barge, 

In noiseless path and still. 

E'en brighter than the noontide light 

Still glows the western sky. 
When bursting glory floods the height 

And radiant clouds float by. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Mild twilight settles o'er the earth. 
The birds have sunk to rest. 

The darkness of creation's birth 
Awaits the waning west. 



TO A MOUNTAIN SPRING 

Oh! thou clear and bubbling springlet 
Of the mountains fresh and cool. 

Where the trees and thick'ning foliage 
Cast their shadows o'er thy pool. 

With what joy and with what pleasure 
I, a traveler faint and weak. 

Wearied with the burning sunshine. 
Pause to hear thy waters speak. 

With what joy I pause to hail thee, 
Drinking off thy crystal brine, 

Resting where the limpid music 
Murmuring, sings its song divine. 

In thy presence will I linger, 
Where the mountain shadows beat. 

Ere again I take my journey 
Through the sunshine and the heat. 



REFORM 



WOODS IN MAY 

There is a glory in the woods of May, 

In spring's reviving flowers and the trees, 

And in the songbird's roundelay. 

That drives the mold of winter's age away: 
There is a power in the living breeze. 
And in the singing waters and the ferns, 

And e'en the dew-lit lichens of the rocks, 

Hid deep among the woodland's secret walks, 

That lifts the heart where all creation burns. 

Responsive to the forest's bursting glow 

Of youth and beauty in their overflow. 

Where are the dead old woods of winter's storms, 
That late stood lifeless, spiritless and drear. 
The dark and sodden ruins of the year? 

And whence the glory of these living forms, 
That thrust themselves into the breathing alF, 
As if to flnd the throb of Being there; 
In their fresh ecstasy of youthfulness, 
Testing creation's truthfulness, 
Within the compass of their spirit given. 
Striving to pierce the pinnacles of heaven? 

Here each small pod along the water's side. 
Fraught with the effort of the universe. 

Looks forth and struggles with the moving tide, 
While dancing flowers and brooks and birds re- 
hearse 

The waking joy of life; and far and near 

The young buds quiver in the atmosphere; 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Luxuriant and full the spreading leaves 
Unfold their lurid tents against the sky, 
And myriad blossoms float upon the green. 
Portraying in the sim a might unseen 
From nature's heart that man himself receives, 
Where earth and sky are young and life is high. 

What beauty in the sunlight of the wood, 
That falls along the avenues of trees! 
With sheets of red it fills the waving seas. 

With splendor clothes the forest's silent mood; 
The golden thrush unfolds his velvet wings, 
His flaming breast a-fire, while he sings 
Forever in the sunshine overhead. 

The modest violet feels the sunlight's beam, 
The cowslip reaches from its marshy bed. 

Resplendent at the margin of the stream; 
And higher up the watchful red bells glance, 
All radiantly arrayed in sprightly dance: 
Off deep among the labyrinths of green 
The honeysuckles toss in brightest sheen, 
Illumined in the glory of the sun; 

O'er the broad branches spreads the smiling light 

Through the green leaves and on the woodland floor. 

Whose somber vines and lowly cinque-foil run 

In checkered beauty on the shady site. 

The mold itself, and dry leaves scattered o'er. 
Like amber diamonds sparkle in the glow 
Of earth's celestial wakefulness below. 

Beyond, the vista at the wildwood's edge. 
Lights up in glory on the western sky, 



REFORM 

And in its path the ferns and glistening sedge 
Stretch to the rounded clearing, rising high 
And free, from out the crowded wood: 
Here too the monumental forest stood 
Ere shifted on by nature's changing mood; 
From this fair spot of verdant covered ground 
The forest margin laughs more freely round. 
Where the rich maple opes in crimson guise, 

Mixed with the fragrant crab, sun-flushed and rare. 
And floods of snow from the white hawthorne rise, 
Tossing a wealth of blossoms in the air; 
Making the scene of spring's rich habitude 
More nobly fair within the peaceful wood. 



e^ 



THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE 

T came at evening by a plain, 

Deep in the lap of emerald hills, 
Where a sweet village lay amain, 

Soothed by the breezes from the mountain rills. 

And peace and quietude were here, 

The staunch inhabitants were free; 
Foul commerce grated not the ear. 

And calm repose breathed forth from every tree. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



BY THE RIVEE 

By the river I know where the wild roses grow 
And the clover buds dance to the breeze, 

And the light steeps the bank by the waters below, 
'Neath the shadow of green maple trees. 

When the sun rises high in the bright morning sky. 
And the dew of the mountains is fled, 

I wander along where the waters sweep by, 
Down the path by the clear river bed. 

And the birds of the hills they are singing in trills, 
And the shadows are dancing in glee. 

And the perfume of morning the mountain instills, 
And the soul of creation is free. 

3y the river I stray at the close of the day. 

Ere the murmur and music decline, 
And the breath of the breeze as it stirs in the trees 

Shedeth o'er me a fragrance divine. 



REFORM 



A MOONLIT STREAM 

Like the stars of heaven beaming, — 
On the midnight shadows gleaming. 

Shines the stream. 
Where beneath the ivy creeping, 
And the ferns and grasses sleeping. 
And the graceful willows weeping, 

Shone the gleam 

Of the stream. 
Deeply hidden in the vistas of my dream. 

Bright the rising moon was shining, 
On the watery sheet reclining, 

Tn my dream; 
Silvery throats of light were singing, 
Airy voices high were ringing, 
Wreaths and garlands forms were bringing. 

By the gleam 

Of the stream. 
Making night's divinest visions what they seem. 

And tonight the moonlit shadows. 
And the golden colored meadows. 

Seem the dream, 
While the music and the dances 
And the airy forms and glances 
Make all else dissembled trances, 

Ee'n the beam 

On the stream, 
Which reflects the liquid image of my theme. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



SONG OF DYING SUMMER 

The goldenrod is fading on the moor. 
The meadow grasses wave in calm repose, 

The infant seedlings drive to haunts secure, 
And summer flies as flew the early rose. 

No more the valleys and the woodlands shine, 
Resplendent with the early glow of spring. 

No more the flush of summer's verdant vine. 
No more the songsters of the harvests sing. 

The sunlight falls more gently in the wood, 
And languid quiet fills the daylight hours; 

The evening piper pipes in solemn mood, 

The cricket seeks the twilight's silent bowers. 

A few more weeks and all the scene will change, 
The goldenrod stand lifeless with the weeds. 

The meadow and yon purple mountain range 
Shall hide their flowers 'mid the autumn reeds. 



REFORM 



AUTUMNAL SCENES 

Scenes of autumn, gray and somber, 
Grace once more the landscape near; 

Autumn voices without number 
Fill the hazy atmosphere. 

See gay summer's smiles declining 
O'er the valley and the plain; 

Scenes anew arise, outshining 
All her beautified domain. 

See again the forest changing 
From its verdant hues of old 

To the tints and shadows, ranging 
From vermilion unto gold. 

View the gentle river flowing 
In the gleam of autumn sun; 

Hear the wayward breezes blowing, 
Where the limpid waters run. 

Hear the leaves of autumn falling. 

Drifting downward wantonly. 
And the myriad voices calling 

In the forest's pathless sea. 

Hear through forest depths unbounded, 

Falling sk)wly on the ear, 
Solemn drum cf pheasant, sounded 

From the sloping woodland near. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Hear the trembling branches sighing 

In yon leafless canopy, 
And the birds of autumn crying 

In their sportive raillery. 

See the sky of weird October, 
Clear and blue in native prime. 

Rising from the hill-tops sober 
To the distant heights sublime. 

See the lane and tinted highway. 
Winding through the wooded glen; 

Burned and brown each sheltered byway, 
Leaving green but bog and fen. 

Scenes of autumn, gray and sombre, 
Grace each valley, hill, and plain; 

Autumn voices without number 
Visit earth and sky again. 



S 



REFORM 



WILD ASTERS 

When winds come sweeping high and fast. 
And autumn's leaves whirl flying past; 
When summer and her train are flown, 
Behold the asters bloom alone! 

O'er hill and valley stripped and shorn, 
By barren water-fall and thorn, 
Where earth lies sere and bushes bare — 
The asters bloom in beauty there. 

Along the stony brook they grow. 
Where reeds stand dry and leaves lie low. 
In seas of sweeping blue they wave, 
And autumn's chilling breezes brave. 

Within the forest dark and brown, 
Above the woodland's winter gown. 
In spots of brilliant light they shine 
Against the sable moss and vine. 

Blue asters! clothed in foliage green, 
When summer's beauties filled the scene. 
Concealed from mortal sight and ken, 
In hidden earth and loamy den. 

Now beautiful and bright you spring, 
From lowly bed awakening. 
Adorning earth, that elsewise bleak, 
Would vainly for your presence seek. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

And when the wood is dead and still, 
And dying scenes the landscape fill, 
Then you alone of all the plain. 
In solitary splendor reign. 



^ 



OH BLEST IS THE MIND 

Oh blest is the mind that from winter drear 
Can fly to the scenes of sweet July, 

That can fly from the wail of the dying year 
To the fields where the fleecy lambkins hie, 

Where the shades of the lofty mountains lie, 

And the winds from the heaving meadows sigh. 

And blest is the mind that from thoughts of ill 

Can fly to the future yet to be. 
That can batten the base in the human will, 

For the guerdon of love and of liberty. 
Where the breath of the soul is as full and free 
A.S the winds of the world in their ecstasyl 



REFORM 

LEAVES OF THE FOREST 

(Autuuin Song.) 

Leaves of the forest — somber in hue, 
Flown from the mountains to regions anew, 
Flown from the wildwood, imtraversed and lone. 
Regions that scarcely a mortal hath known, 
Flown from the valleys, the meadows, and vales, 
Driven and heaped by the autumnal gales. 
Flown from the furrows, the nooks, and the coves. 
Here to be strewn in their wild native groves. 

Leaves of the forest — brilliant in hue. 
Cast of the dyes of the cold frozen dew; 
Through the past seasons no brighter were seen 
Than have outrivaled the old forest's green, 
Leaves that are somber in purple and brown 
Never can equal the amber's bright gown. 
Nor can the leaves of the forest forbear 
Homage to scarlet, presumptous and rare. 

Leaves of the forest — sable in hue, 
Scattered and heaped where the wild flowers grew. 
Scattered afar from the east to the west, 
Nestled in coves for the long winter's rest. 
Leaves of the forest that fade with the blast, 
Still will ye rival the scenes of the past. 
As ye lie dead in the mountains, ye give 
Life to the forest forever and live! 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



THE HEMLOCK WOOD 

Gloomy and dark are the still abodes 

Of the silent hemlock wood. 
Lonely the lanes and the drifted roads, 

That wind where the fences stood; 
Darkened the limbs and the heavy branches, 

Hanging in canopies still, 
Laden the boughs where the chill wind blanches 

Mountain and forest and hill. 

Slowly the snow of the winter descended, 

Crowning the woods and the plains. 
Fresh with the green of the forest it blended. 

Sweeping the meadows and lanes; 
Now it lies heaped in the fields and the highways, 

Over the neighboring hills. 
Driven and strewn in the valleys and byways. 

Gorges and rivers and rills. 

White lies the snow as a fresh spreading pillow. 

O'er the tall tops of the trees. 
Pure as the spray of the high rolling billow 

On the dark waves of the seas; 
There stand the forests of hemlocks enshrouded, 

'Neath the cold heart of the snow, 
Lifting their heads from the underbrush clouded, 

Gloomy and somber below. 

In the dark haunts of the evergreen hidden 
Sparkles a rivulet clear. 



REFORM 

Where the mild breath of the woodland hath bidden 

Waters to dribble and veer, 
Solemn the sound of the dripping arises 

In the still camp of the trees, 
Lending but gloom to the nocturnal guises, 

Low on the breast of the breeze. 

There the green moss of the forest is clinging 

To the brown rocks and the logs. 
There the small stream ot the mountains is bring- 
ing 

Life to the meadows and bogs; 
On the white roof of the forest is shining 

Dimly the broad winter sun, 
Under the eaves of the wood are reclining 

Shadows which hide the dark run. 



^ 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

IN WINTER 

Along this brook the forest trees 

In summer days grew green; 
Today the winter wind and breeze 

Chill all the hoary scene; 
Where yesterday the wild bird sang 

Melodious and free, 
Now shattered leaves and ice drops hang, 

And winds sweep mournfully. 

The crystal stream that flowed with glee, 

Among the hills and meadows, 
Has lost its native melody, 

Among the tomb's deep shadows; 
Where once the sun-lit grasses grew. 

And murmuring waters glistened. 
Today the ice-lit reeds peer through. 

And tempests rage incessant. 

The oaken bridge that spans the brook, 

Stands covered white with snow; 
The wind sweeps through each cornered nook» 

And o'er the fields below; 
A cover cold and silent lies, 

Beneath the old worn bridge; 
The brook reflects no tow'ring skies. 

Along its snow-bound ridge. 

Cold frozen is the brooklet's song, 
And still the woodland birds; 

The frog's gay note has vanished long, 
Nor low the summer herds; 



REFORM 

The winds that sweep the brook-bed bare. 
Bring forth but one lone sound — 

The wolf's long howl of dire despair, 
Beside the dry brook ground. 



e^ 



THE SNOW BIRD 

Thou one lone traveler of the dreary morn. 

Why linger here amid this waste and dearth, 
A wand'ring pilgrim of the naked earth, 

Of regions desolate and mountains shorn? 

Thy mates have flown far to a southern bourne. 
Where peace and joy enshrine each creature's 

birth, 
Where life is pleasure and existence worth, 

And flowery sweets the whole wide scene adorn; 

For thou hast chosen not the golden way, 
Where all is sunshine and allotted ease, 

And fields of plenty flourish all the year; 

Thou seem'st among the martyrs of today. 
Who dare the tempests of the unsailed seas. 
Or face the deserts of despair and fear. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 



DECEMBER 

The moaning woods are desolate and shorn, 
And dark December's raging storms are high; 
The with'ring winds in maddened fury fly, 

And o'er each vale and hillside, tree and thorn. 

To plains beyond and river valleys borne. 

The flying snow and withered leaves sweep by — 
There the dark shadows of the gloomy sky 

Presage the fury of the winter morn; 

Fields, hills and mountains feel the gathering gale, 
The forest shudders at the wild wind's wrath. 

The bending pines and swaying hemlocks wail, 
As sweeps the wind along his river path; 

Fierce, loud and long the sweeping winds declare 

Tempestuous triumphs of the winter air. 



REFORM 



THE WINTER SUN 

Behold along the eastern sky arise 

Yon fiery orb of the chill winter day, 

In his lone path and desolated way, 
Pursued for centuries along the skies; 
In pain he seems to lift his weary eyes, 

To view the solitary things of clay. 

And in despondency to turn away, 
Exhausted in his vain attempts to rise — 
Then, as if spurred to higher life again. 

He struggles onward through the heights of space. 
And casts abroad his shafts of gold and light, 
Leaving the low horizon of our ken. 

To break once more upon another race, 

And drive the cheerless winter from man's 
sight. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

NOVEMBER WINDS 

O'er earth's dark mold the chilling breezes blow 
From bleak November's hills. They sweep 
With cold and steady fury to yon wood, 
The harbingers of winter and despair — 
A melancholy train whose anthems sound 
In the surrounding woods and in the fields 
And in the far-off valleys of the plain. 

In their chill breath the season's parting dirge 
Sweeps forth incessantly. The stubbled field 
Shrinks from their lonely pathway, bleak and drear. 
And the bare orchard shudders mournfully; 
In the old forest, stripped and torn, they sweep 
A sad and weird procession. Burned and brown 
The dry dead leaves of the autumnal wood 
Lie scattered in their wake, while the old oak 
Moans with the gale and holds his withered crew 
Alone of all the monarchs of the field. 

All else is blank and shelterless. The sod 
Yields forth a habitation to the mole. 
The squirrel, and mouse, and the brown-crested hare, 
And all the helpless creatures of the field, — 
The birds have flown to regions far away; — 
To his own homely shelter in the vale 
The hardy yeoman takes his way at eve. 
Housing from ill the creatures 'neath his care; 
Then by his own crude hearth-stone gathers round, 
Unmindful of November's chilly winds. 



REFORM 



SEPTEMBER'S MOON 

Majestic ship! sail on through boundless space, 
Through clouds and cliffs of mountains lined with 

light, 
In the calm silence of the autumn night, 

In thy wide track and solitary race. 

'Tis fair to see thee mount the evening sky, 
An orb of gold amid the purple deep, 
From out the dark ravine to see thee sweep, 

Till lost in space among the clouds on high. 

Oft when the moon hath blessed the quiet night, 
I walk along an old earth-beaten road, 
Or haply stray beside a still abode, 

Where flows a brook by field or meadow site. 

There silver tinges light the emerald trees. 
And labyrinths of beauty line the wood, 
Where the low hemlocks stand in darker mood. 

O'er all the road's reflected images. 

Or past the meadow view the lunar glow 
Fall o'er an old black rookery of stone, 
Or ink-lined tree all foliageless and lone. 

Its specter shadow on the ground below. 

'Tis fair to see the margin of the field, 

Lined with the moon's fair beams of light and 
gold. 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Beside the somber forest dim and old. 
Its gloomy, moonlit monarchs half revealed. 

Majestic moon! how sweet beneath thy balm. 
To skirt abroad at evening 'neath the skies. 
To leave the toil of day, its sordid cries 

For Nature's solace in the moonlight calm. 



^ 



MORNING 

What glory and what splendor deck the sky! 
Along yon eastern canopy of space. 
Where hosts of light innumerable we trace 
As the red sun of morning rises high; 
On that broad landscape where the shadows lie, 
Behold those crimson streaks of light efface 
The shades of dawn that yonder mountain grace, 
Shedding the tints of beauty on the eye; 
There with the splendor of the breaking day 
Are mingled sounds of harmony and song 

From the sweet-singing lark on yonder tree, 
Where the fresh breezes of the morning play 
In whisperings melodious and long 
That waft the breath of life and liberty. 



REFORM 



A LYRIC OF JUNE 

Melody, O melody divine! , 

Upon the mountain side, 

Deeper than moving tide. 

Higher than lashing brine, 
Sweet, clear, and liquid as the springs, 
Light as the v/ild wind's whisperings; 
Deep and as richly musical 
As the dark waterfall — 

Rich as the call 

Of bursting madrigal, 

From the small bird; 
Such melody as never mortal heard! 

Up! up the valley on a path of green, 
On up the mountain side. 

Through grasses high, 
And branches spreading wide. 

All glistening nigh 
With the rain-drop host of the forest scene. 
All lit by the radiant sky! — 
A breath from the windy height 
Hath fanned my cheek in its flight, 
And sings in its own delight; 
— And here, in a silver gleam. 

At the root of this dark pine. 
Flows a musical little stream, 

In the joy of a song divine, 



AND NATURE VERSE. 

Ere it joins the flood, 

Deep, dank, and dark, 

Wtiose rushing roar 
Stirs the lagging blood, 

With its endless pour, 

'Neath the wildwood bark. 
On the breast of its angry chase: 
And the roar hath kept its own apace 
With the tone of the mountain glen, 
Where the breezes blow again. 

And the birds! 
How they sing! 
What ecstasy they bring- 
To the woods they plunge in melody. 

From the ground to the tallest tree. 
Caroling high, all the branches o'er, 
Sweeping the waves of the grassy floor, 
In transports loud and free — 

(And which of the forest birds is this 
That drops its note from the birchen bough 
In a gong-like tone, its own?) 
The deep abyss 
Seems fuller now 
With less of its native groan, 
For the falling note of the oriole, 
Which has left e'en the stone a soul! 

Now to the open field! 
On the top of the rugged slope, 

To the bolder trees 

And the fuller breeze. 
Where the fresh wild roses ope, 



REFORM 

With their tender fragrant yield, 

And the grasses stir 

With the robin's whir, 
And the daisies cleave the air — 
And thence to the singing grove 
To seek some favored cove, 
Under oak or elm or pine — 
Here to bask in the glow of day 
In the sylvan shade and shine, 
Where the leafy shadows stray, 

And soft winds sweep 

With ceaseless tread 
In the myriad world of green o'erhead, 
In an anthem long and deep; 
— Here to lie with the whole wide world in tune. 
In the leafy haze of June! 




All 



IG J A wm 



)NGRESS 



